Youth mental health is a big ticket issue for the Government, but despite alarming statistics, there is debate about whether today's young people are more at risk than past generations or just more willing to talk about their problems.

Key points:

Mental health is the number one concern for young people, according to 2018 Mission Australia Youth Survey

Suicide the leading cause of death for people between aged 15 and 44 in 2017, according to the ABS

Alarmed experts say current generation is at a critical point, with more prevention strategies required

Experienced GP and co-founder of youth mental health organisation Generation Next, Ramesh Manocha, said the money was an acknowledgement that the Government was playing "catch up on a crisis".

"What we're seeing in terms of the ever increasing number of resources being thrown at this issue is a reflection of the increasing desperation concerning the youth mental health crisis," Dr Manocha said.

Dr Manocha linked this to current day youth being "less resilient" and said, while the stigma of mental health was slowly decreasing, it was not why the statistics were increasing.

"Are people simply talking about things that have always been around?" Dr Manocha said.

"Young people are more pressured to go to university, the job market is less secure than it may have been 10 years ago, we know there's been a casualisation of the workforce, which you know gives young people a lot of stress," Dr Fildes said.

"Because of that destigmatisation [of mental health issues] people are actually more willing and open … we're seeing a correction in people reporting."

Year 12 student Tori Voumard, 17, said she felt positive about her own mental health and the way her generation was able to freely discuss it.

A catastrophe for every generation

Dr Manocha said many different factors were playing a role in creating the conditions that can make young people feel vulnerable.

"The increased focus on consumerism and material acquisition, a society where there is aggressively less opportunity for interpersonal interaction … and an increasingly toxic influence of things like the media and messages that point towards sexualisation, objectification," he said.

But personal concerns were not the only things influencing their mental health.

"In a generation that has this emotional fragility, they now have to cope with the idea that there is an impending environmental crisis," Dr Manocha said.

Resources available but strategies missing

Experts in the field said mental health resources were now easily accessible for young people.

Courses such as those organised by youth mental health organisation, Headspace, are run at schools and the introduction of a wellbeing coordinator provided additional support for youth.

"We certainly have a brief to decrease the stigma around mental health and increase the awareness in young people of when to seek help," Headspace's Prue Sinoc said.

Dr Manocha did not deny this, but said the fact that so many resources were being thrown at the situation was part of the problem.

"Despite the tremendous resources and opportunities and general affluence of this generation they are actually mentally and emotionally and spiritually less well off than previous generations," he said.

"Rather than parking the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff … we need to have a much greater emphasis on preventing these problems from occurring at all."

Mr Garrett said the game had changed dramatically in terms of youth support services.

"As a public education system we are now much more accountable for the wellbeing of students … certainly in the last 10 years it's certainly increased in how explicitly we're dealing with it," he said.

With her time at school drawing to a close, Tori has felt the pressures of a school leaver, but said she had strategies available to help.

"I want to know exactly what's happening, what I'm doing … so I've already decided what uni I'm going to, where I will live, that sort of thing," she said.

Tori said open discussions were something she would be encouraging in future young people, hoping to create a more mentally healthy generation.

"I aspire to have a really open family where we all know how each is going and we're all very comfortable talking about mental health," she said.